Throughout this application, various publications are referenced within footnotes or in the text within parentheses. These publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. Full bibliographic citations for these references may be found at the end of the specification, preceding the claims.
As described in commonly owned prior application U.S. Ser. No. 10/342,506, filed Jan. 15, 2003, and in publications (1,2) incorporated by reference herein, stem cells have been used to form gap junctions with target tissues. Such stem cells can influence the activity of the target tissues by delivering gene products or small molecules. However, nucleotides in the form of antisense RNA, or DNA, have not been delivered by host cells (such as human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs)) to target tissues.